Kozahl Winterheart
"She will earn respect just as the Winterhearts do: to stand, when other's would fall." Kozahl Winterheart is a Barbarian from the Spine of the World region in the north west portion of the main continent on the world of Abeir-Toril. At twenty three years of age, she was pulled into Nephia by sorcery, where she currently travels the land in search of her father's soul, which was taken from her home plane, to an unknown end. She is six feet tall, and a strikingly imposing figure. Her eyes are a stark azure blue, while her hair is a silvery white, a contrast from most of her family. She is a no nonsense character, riddled with contempt and suspicion for her new found surroundings. She is also dutiful and honorable, when she is of level headed mind. Her weapon of choice is the great sword, as it was of her father before, in fact, during her travels on Nephia, she was given back the sword her father bore as a gift from the Goddess Brianna, after facing the reanimated body of her own father outside the temple in Easthaven. She is also noted to currently write in a journal, her accounts within it are a family tradition of chronicling her adventures, in the hopes of being written about one day. She frequently recites the mantra of her family name, "We must earn our stories." As most men and women of the barbarian tribes of her homeland, she is prone to fits of rage, the only calming methods being the sight of forests or serene nature, or that of the natural elements. History Kozahl hails from a very small village off the maps called Gate. It is a newer settlement, that serves mostly as a trading port, and rest stop for travelers into the central northern lands. Her father, Kamahl, was a renowned warrior himself, he being a slave as a young man and earning his freedom in fighter pits and arenas, surviving each with animalistic rage and resentment of his current situation. After having won his freedom, he wandered north. Seeking colder climates, away from the hot summers he remembered as training camps and times of labor. Ten years later, he founded the village of Gate, which steadily grew due to merchants, brave adventurers and the like over the next several years. One of which became his wife. Gate was mostly a trade post, a large rest stop on a long road into the cold north, but set just south of where the snow consistently fell for most of the year. Small farms sprang up, but only two or three, bearing crops that would thrive in the runoff of the snow from the north into the fertile soil of the area, crops hardy enough to withstand the lingering chill of the winds down from the mountains. Kamahl and his wife, Nastal, rose a small amount of livestock for food and furs, and had two walnut trees in the back, they would become their daughter's favorite. The wise founding location of the town meant there was always an influx of possible trade for supplies. Five years after the founding of Gate, a daughter was born, to the disappointment of her father, her hair as white as the northern snow, her eyes as deep a blue as the midnight sky. Everything about the child remind Kamahl of the land he now called home. in his increasing age, he raised her as a warrior, a hard northern woman capable of defending herself. To his surprise she was as rambunctious and defiant as a son would have been. Kozahl grew fast, strong and tall, more than other sparse boys of their small settlement, and quickly asserted herself as the "alpha male" of the young lings. Years passed, and her rebellious nature never ceased. At one point she defiantly asked her father, during a days work of carrying supplies back to the village, "Why must I continue to swing a sword, to carry these heavy barrels, to do any of these things?", her father's words would echo in her mind for the rest of her life "Because hard work is remembered in stories, and your stories must be earned, little one." Kozahl would often wander off to the edge of a small wood to the east of the town, simply called Gatewood. She loved the trees and flora of the area, they helped calm her anxieties as a child and the stress of growing up as a hard worker for her father. Many times she would receive discipline by him when she would fly into a rage when receiving a splinter or dropping a bucket on her foot, sometimes when the boys of the village taunted her for being a girl and doing things that "only boys should do". The wood helped quiet her heart, and often times she would practice her swordplay by herself there, giving her a better concentration. Her father always told her that she had to control her anger, there were laws in the world that had to be followed, and a calm demeanor would suit her better, she tried to listen but was never fond of rules, she rarely listened to any commands that didn't come from her father or mother. The same, she decided, could be said of the gods that men would speak of in their travels through Gate. They told stories of the Gods they revered, and the tenets they followed, the boons they would receive for their faith. All Kozahl heard, were fairy tales. During her sixteenth year, her father's health began to decline, Kamahl could not carry as much, nor travel as far. Other men that came through had scoffed that a woman could not shoulder this burden for him, but his body left him no choice. His daughter Kozahl was now the leader of the house. Her sense of duty to her family was unwavering in the years hence, and she learned to spurn those that told her of her "natural place". It all came crashing down on her one day. She was nineteen years of age. After seeing to her family, she had gone to a local alehouse to wash away the rest of her day. Several adventurers were passing through on their way north. No doubt seeking riches and tales of their own. An argument sprang up, they had mistaken her for the inn's "entertainment" and she beat one of them senseless. She was overcome by four others, and victim to unspeakable acts that fatefully, she would not remember in detail. Upon the next morning, she woke in the streets, naked and bruised, in front of her home, which was burning. In a panic, she rushed through the flames, singeing hair and skin, eventually finding her family murdered, and left to burn. It was in this moment, that Kozahl understood that law did not apply, if others did not deem them to, and that no God would have let this happen to her family, if indeed there were any that had any real power. It ruined her belief in anything but herself, and the strength of any individual person. Broken, she buried her father and mother and left, taking what provisions from her home and weapons her father trained her with, she traveled south. Over time she found work in mercenary groups and doing odd jobs for local businesses, often being removed after pounding the skulls of silver tongued men who fancied themselves suitors. She cared not for the wiles of men, but her days in the companionship of fighters and bounty hunters finished the work her father had started. Always she possessed the tendency to fly into fits of fury when people around her were taken advantage of, or threatened with slavery. It made her a savage fighter and helped her earn a reputation as a woman that would not accept a diminishing of her stature by any man. As with her rising and falling rage in combat, she also retained solace in nature, some times it was the only thing that could calm her, it reminded her of home. She took to the style and feel of the great sword her farther trained her with, and always she remembered his mantra. "Your stories must be earned." She longed for the defining moment of her life, the chance to prove herself to be worthy of her father's trust as a warrior, and ultimately - as he had always said to her - to earn her own stories. Travels in Nephia Kozahl came to Nephia after a sorcerous warp into the world during a journey in search of mercenary work. She awoke one night in a coffin where, after arising, was met with the enigmatic Arken and others. With those companiosn made her way tot he temple of Brianna in Easthaven, where she learned of her father's fate. During the siege of the temple, she discovered the identity of the one she thought imprisoning her father's soul, Rogi Neits-Necknarff. Once the battle at the the temple had been won, through the discovery of an avatar of the Goddess Brianna, Kozahl and her party set out for Garrison, to learn more of the necromancer, and to resupply. They arrived in Garrison during Ander's Day, a local celebration of the orphans of the town, and the founder of the event. During their stay, she refused costume and remained single minded on the library of Garrison, which eventually led to more information of the aforementioned necromancer. Soon after, Kozahl and her party set out to find Rogi's lair, by way of sea travel to Evansguard, where she met an archemage of the city by the name of Flaunt. Flaunt directed her group towards both the assumed daughter of Rogi, an ungifted mage of the college there, by the name of Sunami. Who stowed away on Kozahl's ship on their voyage to Karthus, en route to Rolf. After a few stops and a handful of battles, the group arrived at the stronghold Rogi was allegedly garrisoning himself. The battle there was assisted by a dwarf, and a man of considerable power, by the name of Tempo. The masters of this bastion proclaimed that they wielded a power to posses men with the powers of evil shards of power, turning the sins of their heart into manifestations akin to demons. Their leader shed light on Kozahl's father, vaguely stating that she in fact, posessed her father's soul, for reason unknown. After defeating a demon there, in the halls of the ancient dwarven structure, Rogi was revealed to Kozahl, as a beggar of her own town, who came across Kozahl after she had be stripped and defiled. The evil sorcerers of Nephia had marked her to be taken, but Rogi had stepped in, having known the honor of the Winterheart family. Rogi's last wish, was that Kozahl would look after his only daughter, Sunami. To this, Kozahl reluctantly agreed, as well as to drive her father's sword through his corrupted heart. Her travels led her north, to the city of Donell. Where she was met with the city guard, escorting her to the chambers of the Princess Cascadia. The Princess explained to them, that their arrival was noted in a prophecy. That supposedly both the Dawnbringer, the recently attained title of her companion Arken, and the Winterheart would battle a creature called the Yami. The Yami was somehow draining the life energy of the Tree that gave the city life. Once Kozahl's party had descended to meet the Yami, however, it was the bard Jamril of her company, that exposed the Yami's possession by an ice creature. After their battle, in which Kozahl had once again succumb to one of her fits of bestial rage, the Goddess Ashelina calmed her, and gave her words of advice, teaching her to accept the elements of the world. The ice elemental that had posesed the Yami transfused itself with Kozahl's sword. Granting it great abiltiy. Thus to date, her story is still being told. Recognizable Features Kozahl has been notably confused with the champion Alaura, as they are similar in stature and appearance. Kozahl carries a large greatsword, now infused with magics, that bears the inscription of "WH". It is an heirloom of her father Kamahl, a former pit fighter who won his freedom. Her stark blue eyes and white hair are most noteable, and she is otherwise given away by her common habit of writing in her journal. She frequently reiterates variants of the concept of 'Stories' in relation to people or quests.